Victor, Victorian
"Victor, Victorian" is the third episode of the third season of the Murdoch Mysteries and the twenty-ninth episode of the series. It first aired on March 2, 2010 (UK). Summary A new member of Masonic lodge dies during his initiation. When Julia Ogden conducts a postmortem, she discovers that "he" is a woman. Suspicion initially falls on the treasurer of the lodge because another member, Leonard Winters, tells Murdoch that he had asked the dead "man" to try to examine the lodge's books. Julia goes "undercover" and learns that a club of women, led by Katie Powers and concealed behind a women's basketball team, dresses as men to experience the freedom that men enjoy. Murdoch finds that Leonard Winters had often invited the dead man to his home. Mrs. Winters discovered that the man was a women and the two grew close. Mr. Winters, fearing that his wife was having an affair, contrived to kill the woman he still thought was a man. Character Revelations *George Crabtree and Thomas Brackenreid are both members of a local Masonic lodge; George holds a higher position than Brackenreid. *Julia Ogden plays basketball. Continuity *William and Julia's romance stumbles when William does not actively support her in an argument with Brackenreid. He later explains that he remained silent because she is strong and for him to intervene would have weakened her in Brackenreid's eyes. Historical References * Early December 1891, Canadian physical education professor Dr. James Naismith was an instructor at the International Young Men's Christian Association Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts. Seeking to find a vigorous indoor game to keep his students at proper levels of fitness during the long New England winters and after much trials, he wrote the basic rules and nailed a peach basket onto a 10-foot (3.0 m) elevated track – thus created basketball. Trivia * The episode title is an allusion to the 1982 Julie Andrews film "Victor, Victoria". * The Masonic Code seen at the temple has been used by Freemasons and others as early as the 18th century. The cipher key is easily found on Wikipedia. However, the symbols used in the scene where Brackenreid explains them to Murdoch, are gibberish. Translating the first few letters as they viewed them gives us THKESXZ (looking at them upside down from their perspective, VSTYMGJ; from the left side, ZFEGWRU; from the right side, UKMLRZW). The blackboard cipher key written by Murdoch is almost, but not quite, the correct key. * It's likely that all of the members of the women's basketball team, when escorted to the police station, would have been arrested. In Columbus, Ohio, an 1848 law forbade a person from appearing in public “in a dress not belonging to his or her sex.” In the decades that followed, more than 40 U.S. cities created similar laws. Errors *While undercover Dr. Ogden tells the other women that her basketball skills were learned as a girl from her brothers, but basketball wasn't invented until 1891. Cast Main Cast Yannick Bisson as William Murdoch Hélène Joy as Julia Ogden Thomas Craig as Thomas Brackenreid Jonny Harris as George Crabtree Recurring Cast Lachlan Murdoch as Henry Higgins Guest Cast Sergio DiZio as Leonard Winters Angela Vint as Miriam Winters Mark Caven as Eugene Anderson Zoie Palmer as Katie Powers Martin Doyle as Elias Boswell Kevin Dennis as Victor/Grace Reid Uncredited Cast Gallery 303 Crime Scene.JPG|Crime Scene 303 Victor, Victorian Blackboard.PNG|Blackboard: breaking the code|link=Blackboard Murdoch ep303.jpg|Julia in disguise and undercover Victor Victorian.jpeg|Victor Victorian 303 Victor, Victorian Identikit 1.PNG|Using the Identikit|link=Identikit 303 Victor, Victorian Identikit 2.PNG 303 Victor, Victorian Identikit 3.PNG VictorVictorian Kiss1.PNG Category:Season Error Category:Season Three